LONDON (Commodity Online): Agricultural commodities, with the exception of sugar, posted declines on the day weighed by a bearish WASDE and Quarterly Stocks report, fresh concerns surrounding Europe's debt problem and a stronger dollar, said Barclays Capital in a research note.
According to Barclays , the grains extended their losses following Thursday's bearish USDA WASDE and Quarterly Stocks report.
The front-month CBOT corn contract shed 12 cents on the day to close at $6.00/bushel, while the same contract for soybeans fell 18.5 cents to settle at $11.60/bushel weighed by improved South American crop prospects as rain returned to key parts of south Brazil's drought-hit grains area after weeks of hot and dry weather.
The front-month Wheat contract closed 2.75 cents down at $6.02/bushel weighed by ample supplies and a lack of export prospects. Across the softs, Sugar bucked the trend posting a gain of 2.45% on the day to close at 23.84 cents/lb.
Meanwhile, ICE Cocoa fell 2.45% to close at $2269/t on disappointing European Q4 11 grind numbers which rose 1.8% y/y. However, cocoa prices will continue to be supported by the recent slowdown in Ivory Coast port arrivals and concerns over the impact of Harmattan and dry weather.
Coffee reversed earlier gains, tumbling 3.7% on the day to settle at $2.25/lb. Meanwhile, latest weekly CFTC data for the week ending 10 January showed that tactical investors held a mixed view on agricultural markets, reducing positive exposure to wheat, Cocoa and sugar.
Across the CBOT grains, non-commercial net fund length in Corn rose by a sizeable 32.7K lots to 223.4K lots on a combination of the establishment of fresh long positions (29.9K lots) and short covering activity (2.8K lots). Net fund positions in CBOT Wheat fell by 11.2K lots falling deeper into net short territory, at -55.3K lots. Net fund length in soybeans rose by 9.2K lots, by 9.9K lots in Soybean Oil and by 6.6K lots in soybean meal.
Across the ICE soft commodities, net fund positions in cocoa fell further into net short territory at -9.7K lots with the establishment of fresh short positions (1.1K lots) and long liquidation (0.8K lots). Net fund length in Sugar fell by 3.2K lots to 47.1K lots on the combination of long liquidation (4.2K lots) and short covering activity (0.9K lots). Net fund length in Cotton rose by 3.3K lots to 18.7K lots. Finally, net fund length in coffee rose by 0.9K lots to 5.3K lots, with the establishment of fresh short positions (2.9K lots) more than offset by the addition of fresh long positions (3.8K lots).
